12

The veteran Focus band is back, featuring a quartet roster comprising two survivors of their classic line-up, founder & leader Thijs Van Leer and drummer extraordinaire Pierre Van Der Linden, as well as two relatively newer guys, axeman Menno Gootjes and bassist Udo Pannekeet.

The opening track jumps straight into business, with asymmetric rythm underpinned by great syncopated figures, courtesy of the keyboardist Van Leer, who then changes gracefully to transverse flute, and intertwines sparkles of melody in between the dense instrumental weaving. The second track is the customary "Focus #" of each Focus album, where they alternate from a calm and melodic section to another one , faster and rather pyrothecnical in style and execution. No problem with that, I just can´t get enough of that old (but still tasty) trick.

There are two tracks paying hommage to two giant figures in contemporary music: (Bela) Bartok begins with a restrained piano motiv, so moody and full of nostalgia, and then mutates in a quintessential Focus melody by the electric guitar, an impeccable exercise of taste, articulated on ample intervals that balance right on the fence between jazz fusion and progressive rock. (David) Bowie is a more intimate affair, a piano solo commencing in the low and middle register, and belating the jump to the high keys. I think I can feel the evocation of the loss, without any sense of depression or sadness.

Anyway, I have to say that the only track that made me feel in the true presence of the formidable outfit that Focus were in their halcyon days, is the fourth one, Meta Indefinita. There the whole band approaches the greatness that lies in their legacy, and one still wishes to hear so many years later. Special mention to drummer Van Der Linden, who holds the tension necessary for the group to shine, and goes for the rhythmic throat of this amazing piece, insuflating a higher sense of density and purpose that I cannot hear anywhere else on the rest of this album.

Tracks 5 and 10, I find them rather mellifluos, self-indulgent perhaps. Nura promises more than it delivers, with a nice keyboard intro, that segues into a somewhat incongruent outburst by the band, with a way too loud guitar contributing almost nothing to the musical substance of the piece. Postiano is another case of good start and not much more after that.

Don´t worry, I think one can possibly listen to the entire album and enjoy it as a whole, but hardly avoiding mixed feelings. There are moments of awe, but also others not so spectacular. Never less than good, however.